Phone searches need judicial review

The Justice Department’s secret acquisition of Associated Press phone records — involving 20 phone lines used by 100 journalists over two months — has prompted legislation to require court approval of such searches.

HR2014, a bipartisan effort co-sponsored by Reps. Justin Amash, R-Mich., Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., would require the Justice Department and other federal agencies to show “specific and articulable facts” to prove to a court that the records request is “relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.” It would prevent the type of unilateral and wide-ranging fishing expedition performed by the Justice Department in its zeal to find the source of a leak about a terror plot revealed by AP in May 2002.

Attorney General Eric Holder is to meet this week with the Washington bureau chiefs of various news organizations to discuss the Justice Department policy — which is under review by orders of President Obama, who expressed concerns about the AP records seizure (which Holder conveniently recused himself from on the argument that he had access to the information in question).

But this is not about one administration’s policy or practices. The issue here is protecting Americans’ privacy rights — and the ability of journalists to do their jobs without government peering into their newsgathering operations — no matter who sits in the Oval Office or at the attorney general’s desk. As our editorial states, we need a law. We need HR2014.

What do you think? We invite you to join the public discussion by sending a letter to the editor via our online form.